The Met in New York, one of the most important museums in the world, plans to remain closed until July. "These are extremely difficult times," wrote the president, Dan Weiss, and the director, Max Hollein, to the heads of departments, basing their predictions on information received from the "world of epidemiologists" that the pandemic could peak early of May and that the recovery will not begin until mid June.
The Met also anticipates losses of 100 million dollars due to the coronavirus that only six days ago forced it to close "temporarily" to the public: a financial black hole that will predictably lead to a radical restructuring of staff and plans for the future . The museum was one of the first cultural institutions in the US to close to the public on Friday. "He is an important canary in the mine," wrote the New York Times who obtained the letter from Weiss and Hollein: "If even a financial giant like the Met - with an operating budget of 320 million dollars and a capital of 3 , 6 billion - foresees such serious losses, smaller institutions risk collapse ".
According to the president of the American Alliance of Museums Laura Lott, a third of the museums closed today may not reopen once the crisis is over. In the meantime, however, the art world is rolling up its sleeves to serve its audience in the coming months: through the Arts and Culture pages of Google 2500 museums and galleries offer virtual tours of collections, collections and exhibitions in addition to streaming programs such as conferences and debates. Among the institutions that joined the initiative are the Tate and the British Museum in London, the Uffizi in Florence, the National Gallery in Washington, the Getty in Los Angeke, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and, in New York, the MoMA and Whitney. Many large art galleries, from Pace to Gagosian, have opened online viewing rooms for their customers. The auction houses continue to sell but obviously only on the web. As for the Met, he launched a three-phase program, outlined in Weiss and Hollein's letter: all the staff at home paid until April 4, while the museum studies the corporate restructuring plan; from April to July a study to control expenditure and operating costs; from July to October the reopening "with a reduced program, anticipating a lower influx of public for at least next year due to a reduction in international and internal tourism". In recent years, before the virus emergency, the Met welcomed an average of seven million visitors per year.
